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Mamedyarov and Anand make the final

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won through comfortably against Gawain Jones and Ivan Cheparinov to reach Monday's final in the Corsica Masters. On the other hand, Viswanathan Anand had a serious scare in the Semi-Final against Krishnan Sasikiran, as after a first leg draw he was at one point staring defeat in the face, before surviving, and then going on to win the Blitz play-off.

Viswanathan Anand - Avetik Grigoryan 1.5-0.5 (the world champion ground out a win in the first game before holding an unpleasant endgame in the second)

Rauf Mamedov - Krishnan Sasikiran 1.5-2.5 (a gritty battle which could have gone either way. Sasikiran won first, but then Mamedov turned the second rapid game round to stay in the match, but the Indian edged the Azeri at Blitz)

Gabriel Battaglini-Ivan Cheparinov 1-3 (two draws where the young Battaglini held his own, were followed by two Blitz games, where he didn't!)

Gawain Jones - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 0.5-1.5 (a disasterous first game by Jones gave the Englishman a mountain to climb, but he pushed Mamedyarov hard in the second leg, but his extra pawn with opposite bishops proved to be unusable)

Semi-Finals

Anand - Sasikiran 3-1 (despite playing relatively slowly Sasikiran was able to nullify Anand in the first game. In the second game he was much better and certainly missed one clear win, but being significantly behind on the clock led to him not being able to make anything of his advantage. In the first Blitz game, Anand provoked wild complications in which his slower-thinking compatriot eventually blundered. Anand was also too strong in the second Blitz game)

Cheparinov - Mamedyarov 0-2 (a first game domination with White and a super-solid opening with Black induced the Bulgarian to overpress, hence the whitewash)

The Final on Monday will move to Ajaccio and will be run in parellel with a big junior event.

There was also a big Blitz tournament on Saturday won by Rauf Mamedov who had a busy day!